


Knives in the Dark

by mattapod



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Dark Magic, F/F, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22504468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattapod/pseuds/mattapod
Summary: The battle of the light has been won. As the Adrestian Empire enjoys a new dawn, the battle in the dark will rage more fierce than it has ever before to ensure that the peaceful sun never sets on the empire. Edelgard doesn't wish to lose her lover ever again, but Byleth is ready for any sacrifice to ensure a better life for all.(many parts will have my own personal spin of how they came to unveil Those Who Slither in the Dark and thus may not be entirely accurate to the three houses storyline)
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> my recent love for fire emblem three houses is no joke. so, i just had to write about it. this will be centered on the premise of the 'war in the darkness' after the creation of the adrestian empire. 
> 
> and also because i'm a sucker for edeleth stuff, you'd bet you'll be seeing a ton of that.

_“I want to know their origins. Their numbers. Their base of operations. Their plans. I want to know where they acquired their dark powers. How they disguise themselves. Many intriguing mysteries surrounding these people. Wouldn’t you agree?”_

_“Yes, certainly.”_

_"Rather than swords clashing on the battlefield, it will be knives cutting in the darkness.”_

_We who rule the shadows will eradicate those who slither in the dark._

_\---_

_“Professor! The whole chamber-It’s on fire! Our research on the javelins of light is gone… gone, I say-”_

_“Hubert, steady yourself. Did you see who did it?”_

_“No. It was Bernadetta who had alerted me of smoke seeping through the cracks in the floor._

_"When I went down, the whole chamber was already on fire.”_

_“Nothing was salvaged?”_

_“Nothing, professor. I couldn’t bring myself to take even a step inside the chamber. The fire… it was enchanted with powerful dark magic. It pained me to even touch the smoke.”_

_“Has it been put out?”_

_“It is in the process.”_

_“Hubert, it pains me to say this… but it may seem we have been relegated to before the destruction of Arianrhod in terms of our information. Spies are likely walking in the Imperial army as we speak. We cannot take such bold moves in the future. The battle of Fhirdiad is nigh. It would do both of us well if we put this aside for now.”_

_“Yes, Professor.”_


	2. Chimes of a Beating Heart

“To the Empire!” 

“ _To the Empire!_ ”

Edelgard put the glass to her lips and took a long, generous swig of wine. With that, the bright celebration of victory began. The dining hall, filled to the brim with soldiers, comrades, and friends alike, rang with brilliant sounds of clinking cups and utensils, chatters of camaraderie, and songs of joy and love. As the Emperor stepped down the stairs and into the crowd, she was pulled along to a table in the middle of the hall by a Caspar bursting with energy.

“Come on, come on! We’ve been sitting here for thirty minutes listening to you drone _on and on and on_ about the future of the Empire! It’s about time you indulge in our conversations, don’t ya think?” Caspar shouted to Edelgard over the loud chatter.

“Oh, Caspar. Settle down! And please, this is embarrassing,” Edelgard complained, raising a hand to swat Caspar’s arm down. “I can make my way there myself.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Well, we’re here now, can you let go of me yet?”

Caspar’s hand shot back towards himself. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I’m just a little-you know-really excited.”

“I’ll have you know that I am the Emperor now. You can’t just drag me wherever you want.” 

Yet, despite herself, Edelgard couldn’t keep a smile off her face as she took a seat beside Dorothea, listening intently to whatever she was rambling on about. Her eyes fell on the professor at the opposite edge of the table, who watched the joyous scene with a faint smile of refined serenity.

“Oh, Edie! Nice of you to join us,” the songstress said between her words of gossip, “I was just talking about how Sylvain-”

The man himself, sitting right across the table, complained fervently. “Hey now! Don’t go repeating that to our beloved Emperor. Let’s-uh… let’s eat, yeah? Man, I’m starving!”

Edelgard chuckled. She smirked at Sylvain, who had begun shoveling spoonfuls of soup into his mouth. “Repeating what? Oh, please do tell me, I am _dying_ to know what strange and bizarre adventures Sylvain has been up to,” she teased. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lysithea pinch the bridge of her nose and sigh.

“Oh, of course!” Dorothea obliged, immediately assuming the role of a fervent raconteur, “Our handsome Gautier sire was walking down the streets, going on about his usual day. But suddenly, his eyes spy a _beautiful_ young lady enjoying her sweet cake, and of course, he could not help his heart from pounding! And being the gentleman that he was, Sylvain pulled out a chair and sat down across the lady.

“‘Good day, Lysithea. That cake looks so sweet, just like you do right now,’ our lovely gentleman says.

“And you know what she replied with?” Dorothea asked. A majority of the table began snickering. Even Hubert, who was often immune to these jests, offered a few chuckles of his own. “She said, ‘Well, I’m sure you’re not looking for a taste of bitter rejection, though I suppose that’s still too sweet for the likes of you.’ And oh my, you should’ve seen Sylvain’s face!”

“Ha! Good one, Lysithea!” Caspar shouted, slapping Sylvain on the shoulder. “Sorry, you hate to see it, bro.”

Petra joined in with a jest of her own. “She is being ‘too hot’ for you, Sylvain!”

“Good lord,” Edelgard lamented, “Sylvain, I thought five years' worth of time would make you less inclined towards your… tendencies.”

Sylvain frowned, realizing he would be fighting an utterly hopeless battle if he tried to preserve his dignity. “You too, huh, Edelgard? Well, you know what? At least I gave you guys a good laugh. That’s enough for me.”

Grinning, Edelgard glanced at the edge of the table, where the professor, while everyone was engrossed in Dorothea’s story, had left silently.

\---

A glimmering silk of light cut across the night sky. The faraway noise of celebration was drowned out by the whistling of the wind and the trees’ conversations. Reaching up, Byleth traced the path of another shooting star with her finger as it sliced across above. Serenity like this was much deserved, especially after such a long, hard war.

It was almost surreal that she now bore a heart that beats, marching to its own drum, declaring to the world that it’s alive, that _she’s_ alive, and that she could feel. Before Sothis’s calling, she was an empty shell, knowing nothing of the pain and joy and love that others felt; but now, she was so much more. She was the professor of a group of stellar students, now forming the ever prominent Black Eagles Strike Force. She was the proud daughter of Jeralt Reus Eisner, who she could now remember in sorrow but also the tenderness of a child towards a father - those emotions of which she felt most as she cradled his dying body in her arms. But most of all, she was Byleth, a woman who learned to love-

“I thought you might be here.”

Byleth could recognize her voice anywhere. The same crisp, resolute edge was ever so present, but underneath, a tone of somber pain existed that was enough to seize the professor’s heart and squeeze it ever so slightly.

“Edelgard.”

The Emperor walked up to Byleth, following her gaze to the shining stars above. “My teacher… I can’t help but wonder. Was Sylvain’s story such an embarrassing thing to experience that it pushed you to leave?”

Byleth let out a breathy chuckle. It felt awkward coming out of her body, but it gave her a pleasant feeling - a warmth she felt she could get used to. “No. I just… wanted to come out. No particular reason.”

“Mhm,” Edelgard replied, “I get that too, sometimes. Seems as though we always end up in the same quiet place in our search for tranquility, with the Goddess Tower and all.”

The professor let a moment of comfortable silence pass through them before commenting, “There were two shooting stars today.”

“Oh? Did you wish for something? Or better yet, two things?”

“No. I felt it inadequate to have the stars carry the burden of my wishes as they travel to their destination. They must already shoulder so much.”

Edelgard laughed. “Professor, I never really took you for the philosophical kind.”

Byleth returned a smile of her own, turning to face Edelgard. She hadn’t realized it before, but now she knew that Edlegard’s eyes were something of a kind. It was filled with a gorgeous mix of violet and indigo, like the vibrant colors of forget-me-nots that do exactly what its name commands the looker - to never forget. And it was certain that Byleth would never forget these moments that she spent with Edelgard that brought her feelings she couldn’t possibly ever comprehend.

“You must be thinking up a whirlwind inside that head of yours, Professor. Tell me, what’s got you so silent?”

“You,” Byleth spoke softly, eyes forever locked on Edelgard's with mild adoration.

“I-” Edelgard’s eyes snapped to one of the waving branches. “That’s… Oh, Professor, you’re going to make me blush.”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a long time.” Byleth started, “You… you’re something special, Edelgard. You make me feel things that I’ve never felt before. My father told me once that I’ve changed since becoming a professor, that I’ve been showing more emotions that I have ever in the past. And now, I realize that it’s because of you.”

“Professor, I… I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”

“I love you, El.”

Those four little words were enough to render the Emperor silent. Byleth watched as Edelgard’s face contorted into a frown; then, slowly, it bloomed with a tender smile that reached even her violet eyes.

“To think that you’d return my feelings and confess before I did… I’ve always known that I needed you. Since the moment you chose to side with me I knew that I would break if I lost you. Those five years you were gone…” Edelgard trailed off, her eyes turning somber.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be by your side.”

“No, it’s not your fault. And it doesn’t matter now. I-I love you, Byleth. Promise to never leave me again.”

Byleth pulled Edelgard into a soft, heartfelt hug and whispered lovingly.

“I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've never really noticed the color scheme of edelgard's eyes up until the moment i decided to write about it. the color of forget-me-nots (also in the game as a gift) really do resemble the colors of edelgard's eyes. it's almost a little too perfect of a comparison. 
> 
> i'll try to update this once a week. though with school coming up, i don't know if i can keep that promise. oh well, what the hell, only time will tell.
> 
> (ya see what i did there)


	3. The Darkness Below

Though she rarely expressed emotion beyond chuckles, smiles, and the very occasional tear, she found herself to be an incredible judge of others’ intentions and feelings. In times like these, her near-perfect sight of the heart gave her information that some do not wish to be conveyed.

Hubert was impatient. Greatly impatient. Byleth knew exactly from the moment he came darting across the hallway as she stepped out of her chambers that the man simply had no time to waste in continuing their terminated efforts to chase the dark after Arianrhod.

“Professor,” Hubert started.

“Does Edelgard know and approve of your wishes to restart the search?” Byleth asked, anticipating his statement.

Hubert paused. It didn’t take him long to realize the skip in conversation. “Yes. Though she will not be joining us today. Keeping up the empire has been… hard. It would be unwise for her to leave her duties just for what we are doing today.”

“And that is?”

“Recreating whatever we had.”

“Very well. I will recall everything I can.”

“And I will as well. Let us move.”

He led her to his resting chambers, swiftly but quietly shutting the door behind her. It took Byleth a few minutes to adjust to the feeble lighting in Hubert’s room. Once she began to see clearly, she was surprised to find herself surrounded by a great number of antiquities. Among them was a very intricately crafted pendulum clock - its ticking resembled the heels of an Oxford shoe striking wooden ground. It was half-past five in the afternoon. Like its owner, the room gave off a sense of uncanny gloom, almost as if below all these antiquities rested a Stygian force that threatened to suck the life out of any trespassers. With a flick of his foot, Hubert knocked over a small lever hidden behind the door, and the bookshelves to the left of his bed swung to reveal an even darker compartment with nothing but a table and a few chairs.

The bookshelves shut themselves, blocking out any natural light left shining into the compartment. Byleth found the room almost suffocating, but forced herself to ignore her surroundings and focus on the map of Fodlan and its surrounding territories on the table.

“Do you have pins here, Hubert?” She asked, recalling how they had set up the map back then.

“Yes.” He gestured to a little wooden box at the corner of the table.

Closing her eyes, Byleth painted in her mind’s eye the best picture she could muster of their previous map. She grabbed the box of pins in practiced confidence and began sticking them wherever she remembered, with occasional inputs from Hubert that a certain pin wasn’t as he recalled. Off to the side, Hubert picked up a pen and listed out all the possible cities and nearby structures that could house a giant secret test chamber.

Byleth stared blankly at the map before her. Red pins scattered the map without a pattern, littering it like stars in the sky. Before their documents succumbed to the fire, Hubert had located the approximate region where the dark magic was performed. The source was undeniably from the Almyran side of the continent; yet, it was nearly impossible for any spell Hubert cast, with and without the professor’s help, to pinpoint an exact location. One second it told them the source was from deep inside the Hrym, and another told them that it was across the map in Arianrhod itself.

The professor sighed, mind knotting up from staring at the map for so long. She closed eyes temporarily, rubbing the weariness out of them. There were so many possibilities as to where the darkness could hide. Knowing their immense powers, she wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t even in the region to begin with.

Spying Hubert’s defeated form, Byleth patted the table twice and stretched, her back cracking in protest. “Let us retire for today. We have done enough in recreating all these documents. I’m starting to forget what the sun looked like,” she spoke, voice echoing all around her as if the darkness of the room was trying to rebuke her statement.

Hubert nodded. “Yes. Let’s. Though I believe you’d be seeing the moon right now.”

“How long have we been in here?”

“A little more than two hours.”

“Hm. El would be looking for us by now.”

Hubert frowned. “El?”

“Ah,” Byleth caught herself. It became clear that Edelgard had kept the more delicate parts of her past from her advisor. “I meant Lady Edelgard.”

“More reason we should be leaving then.”

The professor sensed Hubert’s wish to say something more and glanced at him to see if he would, but he simply turned and started curtly out the room.

“You called for me, El?”

Edelgard, despite shining in her glory of a dress, looked more than a little worse for wear as she plopped onto her bed and sighed. “Yes, Byleth.” Then, a few moments later, “Close the door. It’s quite chilly at night.”

Byleth did as she was told. She made her way to Edelgard, slipping off her shoes and setting her sword aside. “Are you alright?” 

"More or less. I have to be,” the Emperor replied with a little frustration. She let out a sigh again. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”

Weariness seeped through Edelgard’s voice, causing it to crack at the end. Byleth took her lover’s hand, but flinched when she felt how cold it was; it dawned on her that the fire was still out as Edelgard must’ve just returned to her quarters. She uttered a quick few words that ignited the fireplace. Just as she expected, the fireplace was laced with magic that allowed it to operate without wood.

“Ah. I hadn’t even realized that the fire was out,” Edelgard commented. She then breathed out a few tired chuckles, then toppled over to lie down on the bed, fingers still intertwined with Byleth’s. The professor shifted to better position herself. 

“Being Emperor really is hard work, isn’t it?” Byleth surmised.

“Mhm,” Edelgard agreed, “I’m all out of juice. Rhea’s act of burning the capital had much more destruction to Fhirdiad than I had thought. Each day I’m swarmed with issues, pleas for help rebuilding this, restoring that… So much for moving the capital to Garreg Mach. I don’t think I can even take a step from Fhirdiad until I account for everything that happened here. I can only hope that Caspar’s doing his job well, establishing order in the areas I told him. Ferdinand just started his return from Arianrhod this morning. It seems as though the newly appointed House Nuvelle leader has successfully brought everything under her control. Oh, and so many ties to be negotiated. Petra’s set off for Brigid yesterday, and I wish her well, but soon we’ll have to begin talking about alliances. And Hubert… He’s begun throwing knives in the dark for me. I can’t put too much on his shoulders these days.”

Byleth hummed, letting Edelgard know she was listening.

“And it’s not just all these new burdens I have to deal with as Emperor,” Edelgard continued, “It’s that…” Her eyes darkened with the mood a thundercloud. “The war isn’t over. Not yet. Not with those who slither in the dark. If they continue to exist, the hidden war will have no end. This peace will likely only exist as a facade, too. The Adrestian empire will never really _be_ an empire, just a huge toy house filled with puppets for them to play pretend.” The Emperor nearly spat out the last few words, voice laced with hatred; a split second later, however, she let out a shaky breath of defeat, her true worries spilling out of her lungs. Byleth decided to lie down next to her, pulling the girl into a gentle hug, attempting to ease her moment of fragility.

Edelgard’s hot breath tickled Byleth’s neck as she spoke, voice muffled by her shirt. “Sorry. Not even a week in and I’m already venting.”

Byleth smiled softly. “It’s alright. My ears are yours to bend. Anytime.”

Edelgard wiggled a little to meet the professor’s eyes. “Thank you, truly. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You won’t have to imagine. Whatever we do, we do together, alright? Now and forever.”

Nodding, the Emperor let out a soft giggle. Byleth felt her heart skip a beat at the rare sound. Edelgard was the only one who could ever do that. Compared to Rhea who made her heart stop a majority her life, the woman before her was a thousand-no-a million times better. Everything she did, from such little things like these to great feats like rebuilding a world without crest nobility, only served to tell Byleth that her choice was right. And that she’d make the same one if ever the hands of time went counterclockwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise! i updated early :D
> 
> i was feeling more than a little inspired and wrote more than i expected so...  
> here you are  
> enjoy


	4. Blood of the Flames

The sun was just peeking over the horizon when Byleth left Edelgard’s room. When she woke up, she had found the Emperor pressed snugly to her, with an arm hanging over her waist. Edelgard’s silky white hair spread all over the pillow. Though reluctant to leave the comforts of a warm bed, the professor had (with extreme effort and caution) slipped out of her lover’s grasp and into the fresh dawn air.

There were already people bustling around the castle so early in the morning, though they moved with more restraint to their figures as they tried their best not to disturb the other sleeping residents in the palace. She nodded at a few soldiers and maids that recognized her and started towards the stairs at the end of the hallway to reach her room a floor down.

Byleth often wondered why Hubert had insisted them take separate quarters even after considering their close relations. It was clear that Edelgard herself had been reluctant as well, but the professor surmised it had something to do with Imperial rules that she hadn’t had a chance to familiarize herself with since she had been a mercenary before teaching at the monastery, which also provided little of the normal courtesies Imperial royalty would have to follow. Byleth had stumbled for a week without making a transgression by pure luck.

The cries of a raven emanating from the direction of her room caught her attention. Ravens, in this region of Fodlan? Fhirdiad was known for its bright, lush greenery and equally lively fauna. It was strange that a dark creature of the Oghma Mountains would come so far to seek shelter here. Unless it wasn’t.

She rushed to her room, throwing open the door. Just as she had suspected, the raven carried a message near its leg, tied tightly by a crimson thread. Byleth slipped the roll of paper out and let the raven fly away, an unsettling silence falling over her room as the raven’s cries grew more distant.

Ravens were a sign of malign, of darkness. Whoever sent it couldn’t have meant well.

Letting out a nervous breath, Byleth brushed open the letter, as eager to see its contents as she was afraid. The short message was enough to send her stomach tumbling to the depths of hell.

_ We gave you your power, yet see no use of it. The Crest that rests within you can unlock so much more. The path is yours to tread. The words are yours to unlock, the blood of the flames only. Starting here. _

Simple, yet foreboding. No mention if the message was to be burned, hidden, or shown to someone else. As much as it unsettled her, at least she wouldn’t have to deal with this alone. 

Without a second thought, the professor began to utter spells to trace the paper’s path. Those who slither in the dark have struck already, and it was their turn to return the blow. She felt as though she was on the cusp of something big, yet it unnerved her how seemingly easy it was. Though she no longer had the power to revert time, she could still view its proceedings with a spell, of which the drain in energy from casting was eased by the power that her Crest gave her, allowing her to sustain the spell for longer than one normally could. It was a commonly known fact that everything, from as huge as the whole continent of Fodlan to the tiniest specks of dust had gone through time - and whatever that had gone through time has a memory. Some could access that memory, like humans, but the more lifeless side of the spectrum, like this piece of paper, was instead a simple vessel carrying information.

Byleth closed her eyes and let herself be transported to the depth of time, tracing all the way to when this piece of paper was made. Moon by moon, she watched as the piece of paper was packaged, distributed, and held by a seller, until she arrived at… 

Nothing.

There was nothing but emptiness surrounding her. Suddenly, she returned to the present, watching her own body frozen in time, fingers holding the paper so tight it had begun to crumple. The moment she jumped back into her body, she performed the spell again, returning to the last time she saw the piece of paper. It was being brought out from the storage room by a very cheery shopkeeper. 

“The best of the best, I assure you, sir! And a great deal too! Only-”

Darkness again.

Another endeavor produced the exact same result.  _ It can’t be _ .

Someone had the power to edit memory.

\---

“Hubert, I tried. There’s no use doing it a second time. You’ll only wear yourself out.”

“But-urgh!” The man dropped to one knee, skin losing color as the costs of casting the spell caught up to him. He drew in a few deeps breaths as he desperately tried to regain his composure. Byleth dragged over a chair for Hubert to sit on.

Edelgard remained ever silent, her eyes fixed on the tiny piece of paper in the middle of the table. Her brain spun in circles, running laps around the strange wording of the message as Byleth’s voice rang in the background.

_ Blood of the flames _ , she repeated in her head,  _ why blood? The Crest of Flames doesn’t come as a surprise to the world anymore.  _

“The memory of this piece of paper was edited…”

_ The words…? What words? Was it the words of a spell? No… it shouldn’t be. The Crests’ power cannot be tempered with spells, only with alterations in the blood.  _

“… does not bode well with what we know. The power to alter memory - it comes with…”

_ There must be something I’m missing. There’s magic in this piece of paper, but is it really only just the deletion of the past? The ‘starting here’ must be a clue. Perhaps… perhaps it’s meant to be taken literally? The blood of the flames… Blood-! _

“El, are you listening?” the professor asked, a worried frown etched upon her features, “You’ve been silent for a while now.”

The Emperor did not respond. Instead, she leaned close to her lover, arm snaking around to grab the dagger sitting on her hip. Gritting her teeth, Edelgard fearlessly sliced open her palm, ignoring the incredulous looks that Hubert and Byleth cautiously eyed her with. She moved her hand over to the piece of paper and squeezed it into a ball, wincing through the ripping pain that it caused her. Her palm felt cold as a thick river of blood spilled over the side of her hand and onto the message.

Edelgard gasped when she saw the effects of her blood. For a moment all feelings of pain evaporated as she watched the pool crimson liquid branch out like a tree, cutting clear lines through the paper in a way that shouldn’t be possible had the paper not been enchanted. The room became deadly silent. No one dared to speak as they were all enraptured by the intricate strokes of magic that directed the blood. Initially, it looked as though it was simply crawling haphazardly towards any space it could find. However, as time went on, the patterns combined and formed a ruby-colored map of a place that looked strangely familiar. As the blood flow neared the bottom edge of the paper, it traced out letters much like how a person writing with a quill would.

_ GARREG MACH: YOUR POWER AWAITS _

Hubert was the first to recover from the shock. “Lady Edelgard, your wit continues to impress me yet.”

Byleth blinked, eyes darting around the paper as if having trouble processing to reality. She let out a shaky breath that she had been holding since the phenomenon started and turned to Edelgard, who then remembered that she still had a huge bleeding gash in her palm and grunted in pain, clutching her wounded hand with the other.

“Shit,” Edelgard blurted, surprising even herself. The woman was never one to utter profanities unless the situation was absolutely warranting it. Though, on second thought, she supposed this was one such situation.

Byleth hummed, frowning. “Are you alright? Ah-Hubert, can you take a look at this? I’m not quite well versed in the healing arts.”

“I’m fine, love,” Edelgard replied with a quick smile as Hubert inspected her wound and began to close it, knitting together the strands of skin that she sliced apart. “I didn’t hear what you were saying earlier. I was… a little too caught up trying to figure out, well,  _ that _ .”

“Oh. I was just talking about how the power to edit memory doesn’t bode well with what we know of their powers. It seems that they’ve only gotten stronger the last time I checked. This has many, many implications that can be horrible if unleashed upon the world. For example, you could cause someone to loathe another by editing their memory of them… Though I’m not sure if they can do something like so. On the bright side, they might only be able to erase memory and not edit it.”

The Emperor thanked Hubert curtly, opening and closing her hand in an inspection of her minister’s work. “That’s not much better, isn’t it?” she offered as a thoughtful sentiment, but immediately realized that it wasn’t the best thing to say and winced internally.

Despite this, Byleth chuckled. “I suppose not, but I like to think we’ll be able to get through this no matter the circumstances.” 

“I think we should all keep in mind that this may well be a trap,” said Hubert, “It might not be so wise to chase after them in this way.”

Edelgard paused.  _ But what else are we to do? _ Byleth glanced at her, then turned to Hubert and echoed her thoughts.

“The only thing we can do is spring it. This is the only definite lead we have right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woo this one was a doozy to write! took me a while to imagine how dark magic would work in this case, and I certainly hope I did it justice.  
> read up a whole lot of lore on those who slither in the dark and it's super interesting, highly recommend it!


End file.
